Of Carlos, James, and a cat named Ginger
by Killed in the crossfire
Summary: In Big time girlfriends, Carlos mentions that he hates cats. This is my imagination telling me why. SLASH, but not Yaoi, James/Carlos and a little bit of Logan/Kendall


'I like summer breezes, winter snowstorms and watching cat get what's coming to them.' –Big time girlfriends

Why does Carlos hate cats? I have no idea, but I'm gonna guess. Mild Carlos/James and Logan/Kendall

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A nine year old Carlos strapped on his brand new pair of skates and started excitedly towards his best friend's house. Upon arrival, he saw James sitting on his lawn petting an orange ball of fur.

"Oh, hey Carlos." James said absentmindedly.

"Hi James! What's that?" He asked excitedly. James looked up and smiled the smile that would someday melt hearts (but already melted Carlos').

"I found this cat out in the alley a couple minutes ago! She's real nice!" James said, motioning to the purring tabby and scratching her behind the ears affectionately. Carlos sat down and stuck his hand out to pet her, but the cat immediately hissed and bit his hand.

"OW!" He screamed, inspecting his bleeding fingers and sucking on them. James looked stricken.

"Oh gosh, she must scare easy; Logan says some cats are like that." He said with an air of finality. Both boys knew that Logan was the smartest kid ever, and that anything he said was truth and that was that. Carlos nodded, but he had a feeling that the cat wasn't like that. Nevertheless, telling that to his friend would have been like telling him that Santa Claus didn't exist (which they both knew was a lie)

"Must be. Come on, let's go." He said, motioning to his skates and reminding the taller boy they had plans to meet up with Logan and Kendall at the park. James nodded and put the cat down before standing unsteadily on his own skates. However, once they reached the park, they saw an orange cat sitting on one of the benches.

"No way! She followed us here! She must be really smart!" James yelled, because, when they had inspected said cat (and Carlos had nearly got his hand bitten off…again) they saw this cat had the same markings around her eyes as the other.

"Haha, must be…" Carlos trailed off. Just then, a blond boy on skates and a brunette on foot came over.

"What're you guys looking at?" Logan asked curiously. James showed him the cat, and she purred contentedly as Logan pet her behind the ears. "She's so pretty!" Logan exclaimed, and Kendall leaned over to take a closer look, which resulted in him almost losing his nose.

"Hey!" Kendall shouted, and Carlos just nodded empathetically.

"She did the same thing to me, twice."

"Why would she like them and not us?" Kendall asked, obviously hurt by the rejection. Logan smiled.

"Maybe cats can sense intelligence."

"Intelli-what?" Kendall and Carlos asked at the same time. James laughed.

"Smartness." Logan and James high-fived.

"You're not smarter than me!"

"Yuh-huh! I got a hundred on the state capitol test, so there!" And that was the end of it, because everyone knew that someone who knew all fifty capitols was one to be respected.

At Carlos and Kendall's great disdain, the cat was named Ginger and quickly became permanently attached to the two brunettes, even though the 'demon cat' as they took to calling it in private hated their guts. Or, quite possibly, wanted to see those guts splattered across the pavement. And then, one fateful day, it got in the way while they were playing street hockey, a game which Carlos and Kendall only played to make James and Logan happy. When James and Logan went inside to use the restroom, Kendall and Carlos hit the cat so hard with their hockey sticks the cat flew five feet away, hissed, then ran off. It was then that the two boys decided they liked hockey.

Of course, Logan and James were heartbroken when Ginger ran away, so they took up volunteering at the local animal shelter, which (as it turns out) wasn't just a phase, and when they turned sixteen they got jobs there, only to be interrupted by the move to LA. Kendall and Carlos thought that they wouldn't have to deal with cats ever again, and then one day…

James ran into 2J excitedly, shouting Logan's name so loud it could have been heard from the first floor of the building.

"WHAT?" Logan yelled irritably, but his entire demeanor changed when James handed him a flyer.

"There's an animal shelter a few blocks away!"

"Seriously?" James nodded, his hair (for once) going askew without him caring.

"They're looking for volunteers!" Logan whooped happily, drawing the attention of Kendall and Carlos away from the table hockey game they were playing.

"What's up?" Logan showed Kendall the flyer, and immediately a forced smile went on his face.

"Great, this is great, isn't it Carlos?" He asked, and if Logan and James hadn't been so distracted, they would have noticed that twitch he always gets in his left eye when he's lying… Carlos nodded.

"Oh you bet…" And then he added in a tone that only Kendall could hear "But if they bring home another demon cat we're having mystery meat for dinner." Kendall snickered at the uncharacteristic darkness of the statement.

But, lo and behold, the next week, and orange tabby they dubbed 'Ginger the second' was brought into 2J after being snuck past Bitters along with a kitty bowl and some food. Carlos and Kendall groaned. Surprisingly enough (Sarcasm), Ginger the second, seeing Carlos (who had decided to face the inevitable with his helmet on and his hands guarding his face) hissed and scratched at him, putting a long, red line on his palm. Immediately, James shook her.

"Quit that, you hear? Carlos is cool. Here, Logan, you take her." Logan happily complied and James dragged Carlos into the restroom to sanitize his cut.

"I don't get it! Why do cats hate me so much?" Carlos yelped as James sprayed the cut.

"You don't know?" James sounded amused.

"Know what?"

"You smell like citrus." James said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?"

"Cats hate the smell of citrus." Carlos gave him a 'what are you smoking' kind of look, so he pressed on "It's used to train cats because of it, you know, spray citrusy smelling stuff on the couch and your cat won't pee on it? It's something to do with the strength of the smell or something; I know they don't like the smell of coffee either…" Carlos had only vaguely remembered that Logan had confided in him that he had a 'crush' on Kendall and that he always smelled like coffee before there was a loud yelp from the next room of 'GET THE DEMON CAT AWAY FROM ME'

Well, if cats didn't like strong smelling things, Carlos could tell why they were attracted to James and Logan. James, even though he practically bathed in hair product, always smelled faintly of chocolate and something Carlos could never put his finger on, and Logan always smelled like his favorite tea and vanilla.

"So, you're telling me that demon cat and demon cat junior hate me because I smell like fruit?" James' lips quirked at the nicknames.

"It's possible, yes, and it could also stem from how threatened they are by you. Me and Logan have been caring for 'demon cat junior' for a little while, so she could have seen you as potential threats to us and lashed out, cats are very territorial. I think that's why Logan and I like them so much, they're just like us."

"'Just like us'? Since when? You and Logan are probably the least territorial people I know! After you kissed Camille, Logan was mad for less than a day before he forgave you!"

"Probably because he was only with Camille to make Kendall jealous." James said, and Carlos' eyes widened, even though he'd suspected it was true. "And if he wasn't jealous before, he is now." James said absentmindedly, having noticed his reflection and reached for the cuda hair product.

"What?"

"Oh, yeah, we only brought Ginger two home because we knew that you two would be jealous- you guys are like cats too, and as far as this is concerned, we're your territory. We've been keeping her as a pet all week at the shelter."

"That's…devilishly smart for someone who last week had me convinced was seventy percent hairspray instead of water."

"The price of being the face, people forget your IQ is higher than a cricket's…"

"Dude, yesterday you screamed because I used your lucky comb on accident…"

"Okay, first, my mom gave me that comb, so it _is _lucky." Of course, James considered anything his mother (who had died in a car accident) had even touched lucky. "And second, for all I know, you have head lice, and this isn't even the point right now! The point is that Ginger two is probably ripping Kendall's face off and you were totally jealous of a cat."

"Shut up! No I wasn't!"

"Did Ginger the first run away, or did two little boys attack her?"

"…You saw that?"

"No, but you just admitted it, HA!" Carlos blushed, and James smiled a bit wider.

"You know, you look really nice when you blush." James said, and kissed one red cheek. Carlos blushed even harder, and James laughed, before leaning in again, this time leaning a little more to the left.

Cats, Carlos decided, weren't that bad, even though they would forever be attacking him, because it was a cat that led to that moment, in the bathroom, with a bleeding hand and an Elmo band aid, and his long time crush's lips on his.

0-0-0-0

This ended a lot different than it began, haha. I actually think it began as a Logan/Carlos before I changed my mind.

Anyway, I would appreciate it if you reviewed. I would prefer it if instead of 'this sucked' I got something that could actually help me grow as an author though.

I know that it was rushed in parts, and a little OOC, but I'm curious to see what you guys think (But please, if you don't like slash, you shouldn't have read this story in the first place, so don't flame me for that…)

In other news, if, on the off chance you actually like this, I have to on-going stories I'm thinking about writing, so if you're interested, please let me know! If nobody wants to read it, I don't want to write it!

Story 1- I saw a couple stories on the BTR archive just all like 'Kendall/Carlos/Logan/James is turned into a girl, and a romance sparks with him and James/Logan/Kendall/Carlos because they're straight' and I thought, 'What if Kendall was a girl, in love with her gay best friend James, and one day, wakes up as a guy?' Ha, I made the plot up with my lovely BTR twin.

Story 2- Is a 'The Troop' fiction, so, you know, yeah. I will admit it's kind of strange. Jake, after several counts of reckless endangerment, is snarked and removed from the troop. Months later, Jake is a completely different guy, but did the snark really erase his memory, or is he a potential Gus waiting to happen? I had a dream about it, only Jake looked a little like Jackson Rathbone in the dream… it was weird.

So, you know, if you for some reason like my work, tell me if you'd read either stories (Constructive criticism will be taken into account, flaming will not)


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